KARACHI: Pakistani gamer Arslan “Ash” Siddique won the Tekken 7 competition at EVO Japan 2023 on Sunday after beating South Korea’s Meo-Il, Dawn.com reported.

The Lahore-based player has now won three EVO titles. In 2019, he won the Tekken 7 tournament in Japan as well as the Evolution Championship Series in the United States.

In August last year, he finished third in the EVO 2022 Tekken 7 competition, according to Dawn.com

On Sunday, Mr Siddique played as Zafina to dominate Meo-Il, who was using Geese Howard, 3-0 in the tournament’s final leg.

The top three winners, including third-placed Rangchu from South Korea, were later awarded cash and additional prizes by Tekken series game director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada.

The gamer wins the competition at EVO Japan 2023

According to the tournament’s website, EVO is the world’s biggest fighting game tournament with a long history where fighting game players from around the world gather in Las Vegas to compete against each other.

It added that EVO Japan is another world championship in the same spirit as the main EVO tournament.

In 2019, Ash was named the ESPN Esports Best Player of the year after he became the first-ever unified EVO champion, winning both EVO and EVO Japan in the same year.

In February, another Pakistani, Atif Butt, emerged as the new “King of the Iron Fist” after winning the Tekken World Tour 2022 video game tournament in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Mr Butt was a member of the team ‘Ashes Gaming’ founded by Ash. The team describes itself as a “dedicated eSports team geared towards promoting and unearthing new talents In Pakistan”.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2023